Optimizing performance through human capital
With growing labor market pressures, accelerating digital transformation, and persistent market volatility, organizations increasingly rely on strategic human capital management. This paper will discuss how recruitment, training, and performance management relate to retention and organizational results from tourism, manufacturing, and technology perspectives. This integrative review synthesizes recent literature on strategic human capital management and bundled practices, including talent recruitment, training, and performance management, in relation to retention and organizational outcomes. The content analysis utilized peer-reviewed studies and highly reputable industry or policy reports from the tourism, manufacturing, and technology sectors between 2017 and 2025. The review maps reported effects, implementation challenges, and best practices onto the strategic human capital management literature, highlighting their links to positive outcomes, adaptability, and operational efficiency, while also noting impediments to strategic alignment, uneven digital adoption, and employee burnout. This study contributes to a framework for strategic integration practices and promotes always-learning, feedback-driven cultures. It proposes a research agenda to guide human resource leaders and policymakers, emphasizing sector-specific applications through longitudinal designs that integrate technology, with a focus on employee well-being as a key mediating mechanism. Leaders are encouraged to adopt interconnected, data-informed practices and monitor both workforce well-being and performance to ensure sustainable gains in tourism, manufacturing, and technology contexts.
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